5/1/2023 0 Comments Country song bar lonely eyes![]() ![]() ![]() (I)n the end, he identifies with the narrator. While it can be viewed as a satire of small-town America and its reaction to the antiwar protests and counterculture seen in America's larger cities, Allmusic writer Bill Janovitz writes that the song also "convincingly (gives) voice to a proud, strait-laced truck-driver type. In the song, the singer reflects on how proud he is to hail from Middle America, where its residents were patriotic and did not smoke marijuana, take LSD, wear beads and sandals, burn draft cards or challenge authority. Written by Haggard and Roy Edward Burris (drummer for Haggard's backing band, and The Strangers) during the height of the Vietnam War, "Okie from Muskogee" grew from the two trading one-liners about small-town life, where conservative values were the norm and outsiders with ideals contrary to those ways were unwelcome. ![]() Cover versions of the song were recorded by such countercultural acts as the Grateful Dead, The Beach Boys, Phil Ochs, The Flaming Lips, The String Cheese Incident, The Good Brothers and Hank Williams III backed by seminal stoner metal band The Melvins, all of which are and/or were avid users of marijuana, LSD, and other psychedelic drugs that the song condemns. I'm different now." Ĭritic Kurt Wolff wrote that Haggard always considered what became a redneck anthem to be a spoof, and that today fans-even the hippies who are derided in the lyrics-have taken a liking to the song and find humor in some of the lyrics. I play it now with a different projection. As it's stayed around now for 40 years, I sing the song now with a different attitude onstage. and most of America was under the same assumptions I was. ![]() In a 2010 interview with American Songwriter, Haggard called the song a "character study," his 1969 self being the character: "It was the photograph that I took of the way things looked through the eyes of a fool. I wrote the song to support those soldiers." America was at its peak, and what the hell did these kids have to complain about? These soldiers were giving up their freedom and lives to make sure others could stay free. "We were in a wonderful time in America, and music was in a wonderful place. There's something wrong with that and with those poor guys." He states that he wrote the song to support the troops. And here are these young kids, that were free, bitching about it. Here were these going over there and dying for a cause-we don't even know what it was really all about. During Vietnam, there were all kinds of protests. Haggard says, "When I was in prison, I knew what it was like to have freedom taken away. Haggard told The Boot that he wrote the song after he became disheartened watching Vietnam War protests and incorporated that emotion and viewpoint into song. The song was released in September 1969 as first single and title track from the album Okie from Muskogee, and was one of the most famous songs of Haggard's career. "Okie" is a slang name for someone from Oklahoma, and Muskogee (population 40,000) is the 11th largest city in the state. " Okie from Muskogee" is a song recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard and The Strangers, which Haggard co-wrote with drummer Roy Edward Burris. Merle Haggard and The Strangers singles chronology Single by Merle Haggard and The Strangers 1969 single by Merle Haggard and The Strangers "Okie from Muskogee" ![]()
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